"Could not initialize random number generator" and/or "There are no articles to show."

[juanbretti]

Describe the bug
Problems installing the application using Docker.

To Reproduce
Clean install.
Using a Synology NAS.
Using "Container Manager" (Docker containers manager)

• Getting the freshrss/freshrss:latest image
• Setting port 80 to a hostname
• Setting volumes:
  • /volumen1/docker/freshrss/data:/var/www/FreshRSS/data:rw
  • /volumen1/docker/freshrss/extensions:/var/www/FreshRSS/extensions:rw
• TZ: Europe/Madrid
• CRON_MIN: */20

Try to go to the application, but no response.
The Docker logs an error:

[Wed Dec 27 12:10:26.880345 2023] [:crit] [pid 1] (38)Function not implemented: AH00141: Could not initialize random number generator

The Docker is not running, because it crashes after the previous error.

Expected behavior
The application should remain running. But it crashes/stops.

Environment information:

• Device: Synology DiskStation 7.2.1 Update 3
• Browser: Edge and Firefox, Windows
• FreshRSS version: Docker, freshrss/freshrss:latest and freshrss/freshrss:alpine
• Database version: SQLlite
• Installation type: Docker

Additional context
Files are being generated on the storage.

I tried the following solution: #4162. Using freshrss/freshrss:alpine.
But it does not work because of something different.

freshrss/freshrss:alpine does not work, because I do not get any entries.
The feeds are not updating at all.
Steps I can do:

• Go to the installed URL
• Set up a username and password.
• Set to use SQLlite database.
• Login into the application.
• I see the default feed from FreshRSS
  But I got no entries. I got a message that says "There are no articles to show."
  The statistics about the feed shows -1 entries.

The file db.sqlite is created inside the username folder. The DB contains the list of feeds.

Also tried the following #3100 (comment), and I get the response from https://jointheteem.com/feed/.
Using the code:

 sudo docker exec freshrss php -r "readfile('https://jointheteem.com/feed/');"

[Alkarex]

Hello,
Which Docker version do you run, and which Linux kernel?

Likely the same problem than:

• [BUG] Could not initialize random number generator #4162
• https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=978045
• Could not initialize random number generator docker-library/wordpress#630 (comment)

Options include:

• Update your Linux kernel
• Trying some older images, or current code with older base images. I actually maintain an old Dockerfile for test purposes, which you might be able to use with our newest FreshRSS code:

  freshrss:
    image: freshrss/freshrss:oldest
    build:
      context: https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS.git#edge
      dockerfile: Docker/Dockerfile-Oldest
    ...

• https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS/blob/edge/Docker/freshrss/docker-compose.yml
• https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS/blob/edge/Docker/README.md#build-custom-docker-image

[juanbretti]

Thank you @Alkarex for your support and reply.

I am using the following docker-compose.yml.

version: "2.4"

volumes:
  data:
  extensions:

services:
  freshrss:
    image: freshrss/freshrss:oldest
    # Optional build section if you want to build the image locally:
    build:
      # Pick #latest (stable release) or #edge (rolling release) or a specific release like #1.21.0
      context: https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS.git#edge
      dockerfile: Docker/Dockerfile-Oldest
    container_name: freshrss
    hostname: freshrss
    restart: unless-stopped
    logging:
      options:
        max-size: 10m
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/freshrss/data:/var/www/FreshRSS/data:rw
      - /volume1/docker/freshrss/extensions:/var/www/FreshRSS/extensions:rw
    ports:
      - 8080:80
    environment:
      TZ: Europe/Madrid
      CRON_MIN: '*/20'

What I need to include is the ports definition.

I also removed the following:

      TRUSTED_PROXY: 172.16.0.1/12 192.168.0.1/16

The about:

[jeremymeyers]

I'm getting this on synology as well. I think its possibly related to the fact that there are no subscriptions in my current install (and the screenshot above by @juanbretti shows that they do not have any either. is the RNG somehow based on the number of subs/articles and crashing due to a divide by zero?

[Alkarex]

Hello @jeremymeyers
No, completely unrelated to the number of articles.
Try #5987 (comment)

[Frenzie]

Some presumably related discussion: https://github.com/nextcloud/docker/issues/1574

[juanbretti]

Should this method work to get version 1.24.0?

version: "2.4"

volumes:
  data:
  extensions:

services:
  freshrss:
    image: freshrss/freshrss:oldest
    # Optional build section if you want to build the image locally:
    build:
      # Pick #latest (stable release) or #edge (rolling release) or a specific release like #1.21.0
      context: https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS.git#edge
      dockerfile: Docker/Dockerfile-Oldest
    container_name: freshrss
    hostname: freshrss
    restart: unless-stopped
    logging:
      options:
        max-size: 10m
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/freshrss/data:/var/www/FreshRSS/data:rw
      - /volume1/docker/freshrss/extensions:/var/www/FreshRSS/extensions:rw
    ports:
      - 8080:80
    environment:
      CRON_MIN: '*/20'

# https://github.com/printfuck/xExtension-Readable
  merc:
    image: wangqiru/mercury-parser-api
    restart: unless-stopped

I am asking because I cannot get to upgrade from 1.23.1-dev.
Thank you all!

[Alkarex]

Docker/Dockerfile-Oldest has not been modified between 1.23.1 and 1.24.0:
https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS/commits/edge/Docker/Dockerfile-Oldest

So this would require a bit more debugging to check whether anything has changed in Alpine 3.13 since your last build

[gingerbeardman]

I also run an old Synology and can't use the official docker containers for this "random number generator" reason.

As an alternative to the official FreshRSS docker image, I use this one: https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/freshrss which does not have the issue with the random number generator. So I think this shows that it should be able to be worked around in the packaging/build process.

The issue seems to be that some open source projects assume random number generator is always available at a device, but in some Linux kernels/distros it is not. A number of projects I rely on have been affected over the last few years, some of which have worked around the issue by doing better checks for /dev/random. But its tricky if the code is in a dependency like PHP. eg. Upstream: shinsenter/php#28

I did attempt to try freshrss/freshrss:oldest but Portainer can't find that for me for some reason.

[Alkarex]

Hello,
Check the response a bit higher up: #5987 (comment)

It is not due to PHP but to Apache. I do not know whether there are other workarounds besides updating your local system to a newer kernel or downgrade Apache. Investigations welcome.

Regarding freshrss/freshrss:oldest, check again the response a big higher up: it is to be used with a build declaration in your docker or docker-compose setup and is not on Docker Hub.

You could also try to run FreshRSS directly with the PHP 7.4+ package of your Synology instead of inside Docker.

[gingerbeardman]

Hi Alex. There's a solution: do whatever these guys are doing

https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/freshrss

I use this docker container just fine on my Synology. That's why I never really mention it until now.

[Alkarex]

You can just use that image if it works for you. The reason is that it is based on nginx, which does not have that kernel dependency at the moment (but I believe that might change), and I am not interested in using nginx (it does not support PHP as module so not all features are available, and a good fraction of the issues that have been filed to our tracker are related to nginx problems). It would also be possible to build Apache inside a local build of the Docker image to match the constraints of the host kernel.
Anyway, it is a niche problem, and there are already several solutions available, including using the LinuxServer image, running without Docker using the Synology PHP package, or making a new Docker image for older kernels (older than Linux 3.17, apparently, which is from 2014, like in Debian 8 or older) - PR welcome for that last approach, if anyone is motivated.